The Seventh Most Important Thing by Shelley Pearsall

6^th Grade and Up

This story is about Arthur T. Owens, who threw a brick at the trash picker. Arthur had his reasons, and the brick hit the Junk Man in the arm, not the head.  But that doesn’t matter to the judge – he’s ready to send Arthur to juvie for a long time. Surprisingly, the Junk Man himself offers an alternative: 120 hours of community service…working for him.

Arthur is given a rickety shopping cart and a list of the Seven Most Important Things: lightbulbs, foil, mirrors, pieces of wood, glass bottles, coffee cans, and cardboard. He can’t believe it – is he really supposed to go through people’s trash? But Arthur soon realizes that there’s more to the Junk Man than meets the eye, and the ‘trash’ he’s collecting is being made into something more precious than anyone could imagine.

This is one of those deep-hearted kind of books I love.

Each one of the seven most important things is connected to a life lesson Arthur goes through, which I find brilliant and sweet.

If you’ve enjoyed books like ‘Because of Winn-Dixie’ and Freak the Mighty’, you’ll love this book.

Be sure to read the Author’s Note, it will blow your mind. It blew mine.

Unfortunately that’s all I have to say for this book. I would write more but I had a hard time reading this book. It’s an easy read but I’ve been super busy. And every time I tried to read I was in a half comatose state I was so tired.